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DEL.ICIO.USAtlanta auditor says mayor’s friend got no-bid contract
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Atlanta’s internal auditor, another witness defense attorneys tried to block, testified today that one of Bill Campbell’s cronies landed a multimillion-dollar contract without facing competing bidders.
The Stanton Park project took nearly six years to complete and ended up costing the city $2 million more than expected, Leslie Ward testified at Campbell’s federal racketeering trial.
Ward testified that the City Council wanted an audit of the project in 2001, after the cost kept rising. Contaminated dirt had to be removed from a 7.7-acre city park built on a landfill. The park was closed in January 1999 after a child caught fire when she slid down a slide and the friction ignited methane gas rising from the ground.
Ward said there was no documentation to show how the company, R&D Testing and Drilling, got the project and no evidence the firm had experience on this type of project. The company was owned by Rickey Rowe, a close friend and major campaign supporter of former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell, prosecutors said.
“They subcontracted almost all of the work,� Ward said of Rowe’s company.
Campbell had signed off on the project.
Campbell has consistently maintained his innocence through the trial and blamed underlings for any corruption at City Hall.
Prosecutors say he ran the city as a criminal enterprise and squeezed contractors, including Rowe, for cash in exchange for lucrative city contracts.
Ward said the audit showed that another company with more experience had sent a $6.1 million proposal for the Stanton Park project and included bonding to insure the cost would not rise.
Instead, she said R&D got the project, without the insurance, and the price rose to $8.8 million.
“They did not finish all the work and they did not pay all of the subcontractors,� she testified. “It put the city at risk – a financial risk.�
The city ended up paying $1 million to two of the subcontractors and Rowe’s company still ended up with $7.6 million, she said. Rowe has since died.
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